ToeJam

Beyond Co-Op - April 8th through April 14th, 2012

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What up, weekenders! It's time for BEYOND CO-OP! This is our regular weekly column where we share some of our favorite game industry news that doesn't necessarily involve cooperative gaming. This week we've got a little Kinect-on-dragon action, EA "borrows" some WH40k designs, and Valve is into hardware. Enjoy!

Skyrim getting Kinect support

If you're anything like me, you yell at your TV. A lot. Wouldn't it be great if the TV actually listened? Bethesda knows what's up. That's why they're implementing Kinect voice controls in their dragon-fetish RPG, Skyrim. You'll be able to yell all of your favorite nonsense dragon shouts, hotkey items, and sort your inventory - all with a few spoken words. Okay, maybe not a few spoken words. Bethesda says there will be over 200 voice commands available. The Kinect support will be part of a free title update that comes out later this month. Check out the video below to see it in action.

This isn't good.. The free to play RTS game, Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, seems to be drawing inspiration from the Warhammer 40k series. The folks at Games Workshop are incredibly protective of their IP - and by protective, I mean insanely litigious. This should be interesting - and by interesting, I mean a rather dry, boring exchange of legalese. I was going to write "accused" or "allegedly," in the headline, but look at the damn pictures and see for yourself.

The even stole the paint job!

In all fairness to EA, who didn't design a steamroller/tank when they were young?

Is this incredibly newsworthy? Maybe not. Does it fuel the EA hate-fire? You bet!

I'm not what you would call "with it" or "in the know," but I think I can decipher enough of Valve's techno jargon to figure out that their working on some type of new hardware. The listings for two Hardware Engineers on their jobs page seems to be a pretty big clue. What are their plans exactly? World domination? From their jobs page:

...our search for talent has taken us beyond the game industry and into the fields of architecture, economics, psychology, and industrial design. We’re not just growing. We’re diversifying. Where to next? You tell us. We’re after talented people with original ideas and the passion to realize them.

A console? Maybe. Right now the rumor is that they're R&Ding a wearable computer. In your face, Google!